:6o 



NATURE 



[April 8, 1920 



enterprises, well planned, with, perhaps, restricted 

 but intense purpose. Mr. Miller, of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, was a member, or 

 the leader, of these expeditions, which from the 

 spring of 191 1 to the beginning of 1916 covered 

 an enormous amount of ground : Colombia, in 

 which faunistic paradise alone he spent nearly two 

 years ; Venezuela and British Guiana ; Bolivia 

 and Argentina; and Roosevelt's famous journey. 

 It is worth noting that our active author finished 

 this book in an aviation concentration camp pre- 

 paring to "do his bit." 



This narrative contains no tedious itineraries. 

 It is a condensed account of, in the aggregate, 

 five years' travelling, with many hundreds of 

 episodes, observations, and reflections, which cover 

 a very wide field, from old churches to local 

 industries, people and scenery, plants and 

 creatures, just as he happened to come across 

 them. There are no blood-curdling incidents, 

 although he had his fair share of danger. Since 

 we are taken through steaming-hot tropical low- 

 land forests, over rivers by raft, canoe, or steam 

 launch, across desert plateaux on to snow-covered 

 mountains, to wild natives and modern towns, 

 a few bare samples or headings must suffice to 

 indicate the range of the work : 



A successful search in the highlands of Colombia 

 for the "Cock-of-the-Rock," of which beautiful 

 bird's home life, nest, and eggs little was known. 

 Humming-birds becoming intoxicated with the sap 

 of some tree tapped by woodpeckers. A study of 

 the different modes of feeding of various birds 

 as observed side by side : the parrots climbing 

 to the tip of the fruit-laden branch ; the large-billed 

 toucans are enabled to reach a long distance for 

 the coveted morsel, whilst the trogons, with short 

 neck, delicate feet and bill, hover about the fruit. 

 Whilst one river was muddy and potable, another, 

 close by, had clear red water, unfit for drinking, 

 and it contained only a few kinds of fish, but no 

 crocodiles, sandflies, or mosquitoes were about. 



Mr. Miller suggests that monkeys may keep the 

 malaria mfection alive in districts which, because 

 of this plague, are practically uninhabited by 

 human beings. 



In some parts of Bolivia vampires were so 

 common and so little shy that the author was able 

 not only to watch their biting and sucking, but 

 also to sweep them off the mule with a butterfly- 

 net — a feat which frightened the suffering beast so 

 much that it sank to the ground with a groan. 



The Sirion6 tribe in the same country use bows 

 so powerful that the hunter has to lie down, to 

 grasp it with the feet, and to draw the cord with 

 both hands. They are fierce savages, not " Indios 

 reducidos " — i.e. not yet broken and cowed — and 

 NO. 2632, VOL. 105] 



no wonder. They had fixed some froHgis of 

 a mission station to trees by means of numerous 

 long thorns. The padre in turn had seven cap- 

 tives tied to posts, and after four of them had 

 died from starvation and suUenness, the priest 

 took pity upon the remaining three and released 

 them. 



As usual, the Indian's mind is rather perplex- 

 ing. A woman asked the exorbitant price of 

 4 pesos for a fowl, which she said was a first- 

 class game-cock ; when told that the bird was 

 wanted for food only, she at once parted with it 

 for 60 centavos. 



On a sandstone plateau, at an elevation of 

 13,400 ft., was growing the gigantic "Puya," one 

 of the Bromelia family, and humming-birds (Pata- 

 gona gigas) hovered over its numerous flowers. 



Monstrous lies grow sometimes from a grain 

 of truth, and so do colossal horned snakes in 

 Brazil, Their size at least is proved by a cunning 

 mixture of circumstantial evidence and further re- 

 flection : for instance, the discovery by trust- 

 worthy hunters that the so-called horned snakes 

 are really not horned creatures, but such as have 

 swallowed an ox tail foremost, the spreading 

 horns ultimately lodging crosswise in the corners 

 of the mouth — quite a sufficient explanation in 

 countries where anacondas are said to grow to 

 40 metres in length. But there are also very many 

 observations and valuable reflections by the author 

 himself, frequently concerning the supposed work- 

 ing of natural selection. For example, if the 

 struggle for existence is as keen as is often 

 thought, hovk- can the female insectivorous bat, 

 encumbered with her baby fully three-quarters as 

 large as herself, compete successfully with the 

 unhampered males? 



There is also an important account of the cow- 

 bird's (Molothrus) parasitic habits, compared with 

 which those of our own cuckoo seem insignificant, 

 dozens of eggs being dropped into a single nest 

 of the Owen-bird (Furnarius), so that the latter 

 deserts it.- — That human curse of the tropics, the 

 plume-hunters, in Paraguay and elsewhere, now 

 scatter poisoned fish over the egret's feeding- 

 grounds during the breeding season. 



(2) Mr. Farabee's work on the Arawaks is one 

 of the volumes containing the results of an ex- 

 pedition, from 1913-16, sent to South America 

 by the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. 

 It deals in detail with the Arawak tribes, their 

 somatic characters, mode of life, traditions and 

 beliefs, ornaments, weapons and other imple- 

 ments. One hundred pages are devoted to the 

 language. 



The general account is most Interesting reading, 

 but the book is really intended for the specialist.- 



